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WALKER EARNS FIRST TOUGH ONE WIN

KTM’s Jonny Walker puts himself on top of the podium at The Michelin Tough One 2015, leading from flag-to-flag…

Turning in a near faultless display of riding, Jonny Walker joined David Knight, Taddy Blazusiak and Graham Jarvis as a winner of The Tough One. With conditions drier than ever before at Nantmawr Quarry Walker completed 13 laps of the demanding track to finish two minutes ahead of Graham Jarvis.

From the drop of the starter’s flag it was all Walker, as he was the first rider to reach his bike following the Le Mans style start. Quickly opening up a small advantage as Graham Jarvis struggled with arm pump, Jonny made a small mistake towards the end of the opening lap but stayed out front.

“It was a good race for me,” enthused Jonny after the finish. “I got the lead from the start of the race and then tried to avoid any mistakes. I knew Graham would be pushing a lot, especially after the middle of the race. Even though I made two small mistakes, I managed to keep a steady lead of two minutes till the finish. All my team did a great job today and I’m really happy to finally win The Tough One.”

Steadily opening up an advantage over Jarvis, the two held station at the front ahead of Andreas Lettenbichler. Despite Graham increasing his pace during the closing hour of the race, Jonny had enough in hand to manage his advantage before going on to take the win.

“I just got a bit of arm pump early on, struggling a little bit with pace,” explained Jarvis. Once I got my lines right and managed to start pushing I had a good pace and kept a similar pace to Jonny. The only disappointing thing was the first few laps really.”

Jarvis’ Husqvarna team-mate Alfredo Gomez endured a nightmare opening lap. Falling over a fallen rider as he ran to his bike, he then became completely stuck in the tyre section. So stuck he needed spectator assistance and lost a lot of time and positions. His charge back through the field was for many the ride of the day.

On lap four Gomez had worked his way from outside the top 10 to catching Mario Roman, who in turn was catching Andreas Lettenbichler. Spending a lap following Mario and Letti, Alfredo made his move on lap five and jumped to third. Quickly edging away he would remain in the final podium position to the end of the race.

Holding on to fourth place Letti ended the race pleased yet one-lap down on the leading three. Mario Roman, who early in the race looked like he might challenge for the podium, dropped back from Letti by some seven minutes to finish fifth. Lars Enockl ended up sixth ahead of Jonathan Richardson, Ben Hemingway and Miha Spindler and Dan Hemingway.

In the Expert class Gary Jenkins battled with Charlie Frost with the pair separated by just 15 seconds come the end of the race. Third went to Luke Lusher with Jane Daniels the first and only women rider to finish in 14th.